In Ephesians 3:16-19 Paul prays that the church would be “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”
Let’s take a moment to consider this magnificent description of the love of God, using the description that Paul gives us: breadth, length, height, depth. John Stott says this, and says it beautifully: “The love of Christ is broad enough to encompass all mankind . . . long enough to to last for eternity, deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and high enough to exalt him to heaven.”
So this means that no one is unreachable by the love of Christ; he overflows with love. The love of Jesus never ceases or weakens or wanes; he is not affected by circumstance or mood or fatigue. We cannot sin so much that Christ’s love is insufficient to cover it; there is no evil deed, no heinous act for which he did not lay down his life. The love of Christ will carry those who trust in him to redemption, to healing, to the heights of heaven, to glory, to perfection; there are no limits on its ability to transform a person.
And this is why Paul says we need to be strengthened in order to comprehend this love. As I consider the love of Jesus, just this paltry description I have given, I run up against my limits and capacity to understand and to imitate. I know of nothing to compare it to. I lack the words to adequately describe it. I need–you need–to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in our inner beings so we can comprehend and know this incomprehensible, infinite love of Jesus.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
